There’s nothing like travel to broaden one’s horizons, and it certainly had an adventurous effect on the already intrepid owners of polēpolē on Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Their downstairs bar and kitchen was already influenced by Africa (the name is Swahili for “go slowly”), and a further trip to the exotic continent fired their imagination and gave rise to the plans for a first floor expansion.
Glamp Cocktail Bar is the result, handled on the design front by Studio Equator. As anyone with a passing interest in outdoor living will know, the name is a portmanteau of “glamorous camping”, and Glamp takes its direction from the African safari experience in design colours and motifs while leaving out the reality of endless flies, dung, and the considerable risk of being eaten by lions in your sleep. Artists Freddy Sam and Makatron collaborated on the 10 metre safari mural that leads from the stairs as an introduction to the superb colour, geometry and textiles of the Glamp space. The rhinoceros, nicknamed Heavyweight, was bought from Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. The business supports social change organisations YGAP and Women for Women in Africa through its sale of African beers and spirits — a great excuse to get another round in.
Photography, Andrew Wuttke
